The Cost of Doing Too Much: Why Rest Is Essential for Your Well-being

(hissing tone) (clicker clicks) (bright music) Headspace Studios. Hey friends, it's Rosie here. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Monday. At the beginning of this year, I made the decision to go back to school. I've said it for years. I'll be a lifelong student. But making a decision like this doesn't come without a cost. Well, many, many costs. A while back, one of my students, let's call him Lou, shared something with me after a class. He's a producer, and he was juggling multiple projects, traveling constantly, always in motion. On paper, everything looked amazing. But behind the scenes, his health was suffering. Stress had started showing up in his body, headaches, insomnia, these low-key chronic symptoms that were becoming harder to ignore. He told me, "I keep thinking if I just get through this next thing, I'll be able to rest." And I remember looking at him and saying, "What if the rest is the thing?" I've thought about that conversation a lot lately because, honestly, how many of us have been through that same thing? So I wanna talk about what happens when we put too much on our plate, when we ignore the warning signs and just keep pushing. Something always has to give. So as I was making the decision to go back to school, I also had a few other projects simultaneously working. In addition to grad school, I had launched a new podcast. I was teaching, writing, launching, hosting, leading. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. And for a while, it worked. I kept the machine running until one day it didn't. I got sick, like really sick. That annoying flu that's been going around, yeah, she came for me. And for the first time in months, I stopped. No posts, no group chats, no long to-do lists. And you know what happened? Nothing. The world didn't collapse. My work didn't disappear. My people were still there. And that silence, that pause, it was the reset I didn't know I needed. I remember sitting at my dining table covered in textbooks, highlighters, half drunk mugs of tea, and thinking, "How did I get here again?" I was doing everything I said I'd only do for a little while. And somewhere between the deadlines and the unread texts, I realized I'd slipped into my old pattern of performing productivity instead of practicing presence. So when I got a call from my friend that said she was coming by to bring me a treat, I said, "Yes." She did bring me a treat, all right? After a few days, my body knew it before I did. I was sleeping in later than normal. And before the end of the week, production came to a full halt. I had a gnarly cough, canceled all of my meetings, and resorted to the fact that I was only gonna be able to watch reality TV reruns, drink ginger tea, while taking copious amounts of cold medicine. And after a few...